As a former (2 week) employee of MyNeighborhoodDiscounts.com, I am very well aware of the sleazy practices of this company. I left on an excellent note with the two men who run the company, however, since my departure I have become uncomfortable with the way things were run.
We were instructed to go through every phone book, community magazine, and even chamber of commerce lists and manually input all kinds of information on local businesses in order to call them to solicit the advertising they provide. This happens every day, and is not unusual. I began to have problems when we were soliciting Chamber of Commerce members, saying that yes, we too were a member of the chamber (which we were not), and this fantastic deal is just for other chamber members, which was a complete and outright lie.
Even more troubling, however, was the lack of planning involved in the running of the business, which put the company at risk on a daily basis. There was barely enough money to cover payroll, and the owners had no plan outside of a few months, fiscally. If a customer pays for your advertising, you need to make sure your company is financially sound and going to be around for that entire year that they have paid for. Selling yourself as the "best thing since sliced bread" but knowing that you may ultimately fail, taking your customer's money with you, is deceptive and immoral.
All in all, myneighborhooddiscounts.com is run by two men who have complete and utter disregard for their customers, except when money is involved. We were told again and again - you don't want to actually take time to talk with these people. Get the money, and get off the phone, call the next one. We don't care about the specifics of their advertising or business, that can be worked out later, after we have money in hand.
I would warn any business contemplating advertising with them to take a hard look at their decision, and ask some serious questions of myneighborhooddiscounts.com, like "are you going to be in business for the entire year I'm paying for?" and "will the site actually get any hits?" Because I guarantee you: they will fall short of your expectations on both accounts.
0 comments